44 Wedding Facts & Figures That Are Worth Reading

In 1914, Henriette Caillaux, the wife of the French PM assassinated a newspaper editor to prevent him from leaking that she and her husband had been dating while still married to their previous spouses. She was acquitted for ‘uncontrollable female emotions.’

27. US president Cleveland developed a close relationship with his friend’s baby daughter. When his friend died, a court-appointed him to administer her estate, making him closer to the then 11-year-old girl. When she graduated from university at 21, 49-year-old Cleveland married her while he was the President.

28. A wife’s happiness is more important than her husband’s when it comes to keeping a happy, lasting marriage, in a study that surveyed older couples married for an average of 39 years.

29. John Belushi forgot to bring any form of ID to his own wedding. He called a judge, asked him if he watched SNL, and got him to sign an affidavit for the wedding license.

30. The best man’s original purpose was to serve as an accomplice in case the bride needed to be kidnapped from disapproving parents.

“Ring Of Fire” popularized by Johnny Cash was actually written by June Carter about her falling in love with Johnny Cash while he was still married to his first wife.

32. Oktoberfest started off as a wedding reception for a Prince in Bavaria in 1810, and the newlyweds enjoyed it so much, they suggested making it an annual event.

33. In ancient Egypt, couples were considered married whenever they moved in together. Wedding ceremonies were reserved for the upper classes.

34. In 1901, a woman in Spain adopted a male identity and married another woman. The couple was later discovered and had to escape to Argentina. Their marriage certificate was never annulled, so this is the first recorded same-sex marriage in Spain, 100 years before it was legal.

35. A Nazi judge whose job was investigating corruption and irregularities in the SS, discovered a death camp hosting a Jewish wedding, attended by over 1,000 guests, including members of the SS.

JRR Tolkien initially fell in love with his future wife at 16 years old. His guardian, a catholic priest ordered him to not have any contact until he was 21. He obeyed. He met her under a railroad viaduct and she broke up her engagement, converted to Catholicism, and married Tolkien.

37. King Harald of Norway vowed to remain unmarried for life unless he could marry his true love, the daughter of a cloth merchant. She became the Queen of Norway and they are still married (as of June 2020).

38. In 1904 a Swedish sailor named Carl Emil Pettersson was shipwrecked on an island in Papua New Guinea that was inhabited by cannibals. The king’s daughter fell in love with him. They married and he eventually became the king of the island.

39. Musician Jerry Lee Lewis courted so much controversy by marrying his 13-year-old cousin at the age of 22 that he went from playing $10,000 concert halls to $250 dollar a night dive bars.

40. At 52, Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman married 18-year-old Mandy Smith but divorced after a year. Bill's 30-year-old son then Stephen married Mandy's mother, age 46. If Bill and Mandy had remained married, Stephen would have been his father's father-in-law and his own grandpa.

In 18th century Europe, the public consummation of a Royal wedding wasn't uncommon. On the wedding night of the royal couple, select guests escorted them to the bedding ceremony and watched the couple get into bed together.

42. Jerry Seinfeld met his wife while she was engaged to another man. She married the other guy in June 1998, went on a three-week honeymoon, came back and moved in with Seinfeld, divorced her husband by October, and was engaged to Seinfeld before the year was out in November 1998.

43. When Pocahontas married John Rolfe, the uproar in the British court had nothing to do with race. It was because a princess had married a commoner.

44. Charlie Chaplin was into young girls. He fired an underaged girl from his movie after she refused to abort his child and narrowly escaped a sex scandal by marrying her in secret.